Saddam probably alive as new tape surfaces

Saddam Hussein is probably alive and hiding in northern Iraq, and that belief is fuelling attacks against American forces by loyalists of the former Iraqi president, US officials said today.

An audiotape message claiming to be by the toppled Iraqi leader aired on Arab television today calling for resistance "to inflict losses and evict the enemy from Iraq."

The CIA was analysing the tape to determine whether it was genuine, but US officials said analysts familiar with Saddam's voice say it sounds like him.

Saddam videotapes that emerged during the war after US bombings aimed specifically at killing him and his two sons were generally believed to have been prerecorded so it was not certain whether he had survived.

But the audiotape aired today and a previous one on July 4 appeared to have been recorded more recently because of what they said, officials said. ");document.write("

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"There is no way to know for certain, but the tapes certainly appear to be genuine, they are obviously reasonably current," a US intelligence official told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

"We believe that they are addressing issues that are going on currently, the scenarios that they are talking about are what has been taking place in recent days, in recent weeks, the types of attacks, and continuing to fan those and encourage those types of strikes against Americans," the official said.

US troops in Iraq are being targeted almost daily in what General John Abizaid, who heads US Central Command, has called "a classical guerrilla-type campaign."

Those attacks are partly fuelled by a perception that Saddam is alive and could regain power, which in turn spreads fear among Iraqis and hampers efforts to bring stability to the country, US officials said.

"Until you've displayed a body the people will believe that he's alive and that he has the ability to come back. So that's going to continue to just create turmoil within the country," the intelligence official said.

US forces are operating on the assumption that Saddam is alive and probably hiding in northern Iraq where his hometown of Tikrit and former power base is located.

"You would believe at this point that people very close to him, distant family members, in his familial stronghold have been providing shelter and safe haven for him," the intelligence official said. "And family runs deep over there and it runs long, and they've got distant, distant relatives."

US authorities have received leads from interrogations of former Iraqi officials.

Western forces have found safe houses used by Saddam loyalists as a result of some of the leads - sometimes where the food was still warm on the table, officials said.

"We've been that close, don't know exactly who was in there, but forensics is taking a look to see if we can find any evidence," the intelligence official said.

Another US official said that while US authorities assumed Saddam was alive, the interrogations have not found anyone who has reliably seen him recently.

"Nobody said they saw him recently, some of them said they saw him in April. A lot of people say they haven't," the official said.